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| ===About Biofuelwatch=== | | ===About Biofuelwatch=== |
| Biofuelwatch is a volunteer-led campaign group which receives no commercial or government funding. The aims of the group are set out in the Biofuelwatch policy below. Anybody who agrees with our aims and who would like to volunteer time for the group or help in any way, please email us at info[at]biofuelwatch.org.uk. | | Biofuelwatch provides information, advocacy and campaigning in relation to the climate, environmental, human rights and public health impacts of large-scale industrial bioenergy. We are a small team of staff and volunteers based in the UK and US. Our work is currently supported by grants from Andrew Wainwright Reform Trust, Ceres Trust, CS Fund/Wash-Mott Legacy, Lush Charity Pot , Partnership for Policy Integrity, and Polden-Puckham Charitable Foundation. We are also grateful for smaller individual donations. Please see our donations page for details about how to support our work. |
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| ===BIOFUELWATCH POLICY=== | | ===BIOFUELWATCH POLICY=== |
| ;Policy aims and principles: | | ;Policy aims and purpose: |
| The Biofuelwatch aims and principles are to:
| | Biofuelwatch’s aims are: |
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| '''(a) Campaign against industrial bioenergy, i.e. energy linked to industrial agriculture and industrial forestry. This includes agrofuels, both current ones and 'second generation' ones.'''
| | + Advancing the education of the public about the environmental, climate, social and public health impacts of different types of large-scale bioenergy as well as bio-based products; |
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| Industrial agriculture, industrial logging and industrial tree plantations are major causes of greenhouse gas emissions and of the destruction of natural ecosystems and biodiversity, which are essential for regulating the climate. They also drive the destruction of sustainable agriculture, displacing small farmers, indigenous peoples, forest and other communities. They are inherently unsustainable and can never be part of the solution to climate change.
| | + Promoting sustainable energy policies and investments which prioritise energy conservation and efficiency as well as forms of renewable energy which result in real greenhouse gas reduction, protect ecosystems, soil, water and public health and which protect human rights, including the right to food and water ; |
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| '''(b) Campaign in particular against the drivers of the demand for industrial bioenergy, i.e. against the policies which create an artificial market for agrofuels and other types of large-scale bioenergy and against the companies responsible for land-grabbing and land-conversion for industrial bioenergy.'''
| | + Promoting environmental decision making in relation to bioenergy and other bio-based products – including bioenergy-related decisions on land use and environmental permitting – which prioritise the protection of climate, environment, social justice and public health and promoting active citizenship in this respect. |
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| '''(c) Support organisations and communities who are negatively affected by industrial bioenergy expansion, for example through sharing of information, media and publicity work and supporting relevant protest email actions.'''
| | + Raising awareness about the climate, environmental, social and public health impacts of different forms of large-scale bioenergy and other bio-based products; |
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| The growing demand for agrofuels and, increasingly, other types of bioenergy, is accelerating the expansion of industrial monocultures worldwide.
| | Our work includes: |
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| '''(d) Actively support community groups and other local organisations campaigning against industrial bioenergy.'''
| | + Improving public knowledge of and understanding of the need for energy and climate policies to address wider environmental sustainability and human rights implications of decisions and investments; |
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| '''(e) Support campaigns for food sovereignty and biodiverse, small-scale agriculture, by Via Campesina and other groups.'''
| | + Providing advice, support and advocacy to communities and local groups affected by large-scale bioenergy developments, whether by bioenergy installations or by land conversion or logging to produce feedstock for bioenergy or other bio-based products; |
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| Small-scale agro-ecological farming and agricultural policies that support food sovereignty are key to mitigating and increasing resilience to climate change.
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| '''(f) Raise awareness of the essential role which biodiversity and healthy ecosystems, including healthy soils, play in regulating the global climate, of the fact that the biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis are closely linked and cannot be addressed in isolation, and of the need for major reductions in overall consumption, including of energy and wood products particularly in the global North.
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| We further support the following principles:
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| * Support for major reductions in the demand for/use of energy, wood products, agricultural products (including livestock) etc. amongst those with high consumption and energy use.
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| * Support for genuine and socially just ecological restoration, including restoration of soils through agro-ecological practices/permaculture.
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| * Support for genuine renewable energy, which must be defined as excluding industrial bioenergy and other technologies which destroy biodiversity and ecosystems, such as large-scale hydro dams.
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| * A rejection of all policies which commodify nature, including carbon trading, trading in 'ecosystem services', market-based 'REDD' schemes and 'biodiversity offsets'.
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| * A rejection of all attempts at 'geo-engineering', including bio-sequestration (such as biochar, ocean fertilisation, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage). Geo-engineering will put new major pressures on ecosystems and species and thus further undermine their ability to stabilise the climate.
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| * A rejection of all genetic engineering, whether of microbes, trees, crops or algae for reasons which include the potential for serious negative impacts on ecosystems.
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| | + Actively promoting reforms to renewable energy policies in relation to bioenergy which protect ecosystems, soils, water, public health and human rights, including the right to food; |
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| | In the UK, the current key focus of Biofuelwatch’s work is on biofuel and biomass electricity. |
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| ==Adresse== | | ==Adresse== |